Computer Organization & Architecture (AL-404) - Important Questions

Explain the concept of bus structure and how it aids CPU and memory communication.

Explain the fetch-execute cycle, including the sequence of fetch and execute steps and the roles of the program counter, instruction register and memory registers.

Explain the fetch-execute / instruction cycle in detail, including the sequence of fetch and execute steps and the structure and role of the program counter, instruction register and memory registers, with flowchart.

Explain addressing modes with suitable examples.

What is a microprogram sequencer? Explain its working with block diagram

Explain Stack Organization in detail. Discuss PUSH and POP operations with suitable examples and diagrams.

Explain the organization of a hardwired control unit with its advantages, disadvantages and applications.

How does the control word help in micro-operation execution? Illustrate with an example.

Draw and explain the architecture / basic structure of a computer system with a block diagram.

Differentiate between hardwired control unit and microprogrammed control unit.

Explain how microinstructions are organized in control memory and their role in instruction execution

Differentiate between accumulator, index, stack and general-purpose registers in terms of functions and usage.

Explain Booth's algorithm with flowchart and illustrate with an example multiplication.

Explain the design of an arithmetic unit with a neat block diagram and functions of its components.

Explain IEEE floating-point number representation including normalization, exponent, mantissa, and bias with examples.

Explain signal addition and subtraction and the design/operation of a 4-bit adder/subtractor circuit

Explain the design of the arithmetic unit and its required components with a neat sketch.

Explain 1's complement and 2's complement representation for negative numbers with examples.

Describe Booth's algorithm for multiplication and illustrate with a 4-bit example

Compare fixed-point and floating-point arithmetic operations with examples.

Discuss Booth's algorithm for multiplication of signed numbers in detail

Explain floating-point representation and the basic floating-point arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) with suitable examples.

Draw the flowchart for Booth's algorithm for multiplication of signed 2's complement numbers and explain with an example

Explain two's complement representation of negative numbers and performing subtraction as addition using complement.

Explain the working of PCI bus and other I/O interfaces such as SCSI bus and USB bus and how they improve I/O performance

Explain Direct Memory Access (DMA) and how DMA operation / DMA controller works with block diagram.

Explain asynchronous data transfer including strobe control and handshaking methods.

Explain the architecture and working of the PCI bus and how it improves I/O performance, with block diagram.

Explain direct memory access (DMA) and its operation with block diagram of DMA controller.

Compare USB and SCSI buses in terms of speed, cost and application.

Write a comparative note on different types of I/O interfaces

Differentiate between serial and parallel data transfer in terms of transmission, speed and implementation complexity.

Explain why an interface is needed for input-output devices and how it is connected to I/O devices with a neat sketch

Describe strobe control and handshaking methods in asynchronous data transfer.

Differentiate between synchronous and asynchronous data transfer.

What is the need of I/O processor? Explain the working of I/O processor?

Compare magnetic tape, magnetic disk (HDD) and optical storage in terms of access time, reliability, cost and advantages/disadvantages.

Explain how cache memory improves CPU/system performance, including cache design principles and locality (temporal and spatial) and cache effectiveness.

Calculate number of page faults for a given reference string using FIFO and Optimal page replacement algorithms.

Explain the architecture and working of a magnetic disk.

Explain the concept of virtual memory with a neat diagram.

Explain cache memory mapping techniques including direct mapping, associative / fully associative mapping, and set-associative mapping, with diagrams and advantages and disadvantages

Discuss / explain the concept of memory hierarchy in a computer system and its significance.

Write a short note on Direct Memory Access as a choice among other memory topics.

Write pseudocode program to simulate LRU page replacement.

What is memory organization? Discuss the different types of memory organization in a computer system.

Explain the concept of memory segmentation, how it complements virtual memory, and its advantages and challenges.

Describe the role of the Memory Management Unit (MMU) in a computer system. Explain how the MMU facilitates address translation between virtual addresses and physical addresses.

Compare and differentiate RISC vs CISC architectures, including definitions, characteristics, and examples.

What is a multiprocessor and explain inter-processor communication, synchronization and arbitration in detail.

Explain the concept of pipelining and how it improves instruction execution throughput and system performance.

Compare RISC and CISC architectures and explain their fundamental differences with examples.

Explain the concept of inter-processor arbitration and discuss different arbitration techniques used in multiprocessor systems.

Explain array processors / array processing and its significance in computer architecture and parallel computing.

Describe different types of interconnection networks used in multiprocessor systems.

Explain the characteristics and structure/organization of multiprocessor systems.

Explain the concept of pipelining and differentiate/compare vector processing and array processing.

Discuss multicore processor in detail.

Discuss and explain RISC architecture in detail.

Discuss the following in detail: Vector processing

Write a short note on any two of the following:

Differentiate between vectored and non-vectored interrupts.